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If the prospect of bad weather causes you to obsessively monitor weather reports and makes your heart pound, head spin and palms sweat, you could be suffering from severe weather phobia, psychologists say.

In the first survey ever on this disorder, US researchers have found that it's more than just "thunder phobia" or mild anxiety about tornadoes or hurricanes.

They estimate one in five people could suffer from the condition.

Severe weather phobics are truly panicked at the very thought of storms and can't function normally until the weather clears.

"They get very afraid even when the possibility of severe weather is days away," says psychologist Professor John Westefeld of the University of Iowa.

This is not the normal, healthy worry most people have and which motivates them to prepare for a storm.

"I really don't know how extensive it is," said Westefeld. "It's clear this is definitely out there."

"There are probably several million people that have it," says Zeus Flores, the creator of the supportive website stormphobia.org and a self-described storm phobic.

But, Flores adds, in most causes people are very good at hiding the problem, which doesn't help them deal with it.

"Often family members may have a clue, but not friends and co-workers," Flores says.

Severe weather phobics can feel an overwhelming dread during storm seasons and some move out of their home towns.

"In my case I'd sleep in the closet at night with a map and a flashlight to track the storm," Flores says.

Treating weather phobia

Flores was part of an experimental storm phobia treatment program that Westefeld created in the 1990s.

The program is based on those that treat people with a fear of flying.

An expert on the subject, in this case a meteorologist, is teamed with a counseling psychologist to provide sufferers with more factual information about what they fear and teach them techniques for relaxing.

One factor that isn't helping storm phobics in the US is the way the media covers storms, says Flores.

He says programs like the Weather Channel just used to provide weather reports.